Gaithersburg bomb-maker agrees to psychiatric care

Judge cites concern for teen's well-being

A Gaithersburg teen who pleaded guilty earlier this month to making bombs with a Bethesda teenager is undergoing psychiatric care after a judge said she feared he may harm himself.

Prosecutors alleged during a Jan. 16 emergency bond hearing that Patrick Serafim Yevsukov, who turned 18 on Sunday, violated a bond agreement when he told a court social worker that he would kill his aunt if she received custody of him and his siblings in his parents' divorce proceeding.

Yevsukov, who had been granted use immunity for his testimony, has been in his mother's custody in lieu of bond. Prosecutors said that his recent threats violated terms of the agreement and asked that Yevsukov be jailed without bond, saying that the teen's statements to a court evaluator did not match what he told criminal investigators and that he posed a potential violent threat.

Yevsukov remains released on his own recognizance following a voluntary psychiatric assessment, according to his lawyer.

"I really can't deal with this anymore," Yevsukov told Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Louise G. Scrivener, saying that he had asked his lawyer for a therapist. "I really want to be able to deal with this because emotionally I can't handle the stress — I feel that my life is just crumbling around me."

Yevsukov's case has made headlines since July, when investigators raided the home of his friend Collin McKenzie-Gude, 19, of Bethesda and found more than 50 pounds of chemicals, assault rifles, a school faculty list, a map of Camp David marked with a presidential motorcade route, two bulletproof vests loaded with armor-piercing ammunition and a document explaining how to kill someone at 200 meters. Yevsukov, a former county police intern, pleaded guilty on Jan. 9 to two felony charges of manufacture or possession of a destructive device with incendiary intent, misdemeanor theft for stealing police letterhead and unauthorized use of a police computer.

The teen's aunt, Ludmila S. Yevsukov of Gaithersburg, brought the case to police after McKenzie-Gude waved an AK-47 assault rifle in her home.

Patrick Yevsukov went to Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health on Jan. 16, after Scrivener said during the hearing that he appeared "severely stressed." He was released to his mother and mental health care specialists, said his lawyer, Rene Sandler, who balked that a court employee spoke with her client without her knowledge.

"This child had enormous stress on him from his own legal situation compounded by seeing his parents and family being ripped apart in the domestic process and this social worker obviously did not care or give thought to the mental health of my client and the consequences of putting a child in the middle like he did," Sandler said in an interview, saying Yevsukov's comments were taken out of context.

Kyle Bivens, a court custody evaluator, said in court he informed Yevsukov that information obtained during his interview could be used in his criminal investigation.

"We don't view it as an idle threat," said Montgomery County Assistant State's Attorney Peter Feeney of Yevsukov's threat, saying the teen told Bivens, "I don't care if I have to go to jail for the rest of my life."

Feeney said that Yevsukov had talked with McKenzie-Gude about killing Yevsukov's mother and planned to buy handguns in early 2008.

Yevsukov's mother, Meghan Haney-Yevsukov, said in court that her husband, Serafim, exposed Yevsukov to firearms and taught him to use explosives. Her husband did not testify and did not return calls for comment. His attorney, Jonathan D. Isaacs of Rockville, Serafim Yevsukov's attorney, Jonathan D. Isaacs of Rockville, denied Haney-Yevsukov's claims.